Australian Teacher Anne Mirtschin put together this slide show with pictures of the food we ate at the Flat Classroom Conference. Thought you'd like to see it.
Tayler B actually ate some baby camel, which is not pictured - and he says it is sort of stringy. To me, the best food was the chicken they served, of all kinds. They had no pork at all so the sausages they served were chicken sausage.
Betty and I LOVED the hummus and snacked a lot together, but the students did not care for it at all. Quite a few places had western food and I ate a burger at TGI Fridays at the Vellagio mall on the last night - OH YUM!!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Home again
Hey everyone, I'm back from Qatar, and I'm really tired from the 30 hours of traveling that I did yesterday. Mrs. Azalee picked us up from the airport at 1 a.m. last night, and we finally arrived in Camilla at about 4:30 a.m. Let's just say I slept right through my 9 am wake-up, but I finally woke up at 10 am, and was able to make it back to school
at 11am. Well I'm tired, but I had a great experience, and I will be posting a reflection soon.
at 11am. Well I'm tired, but I had a great experience, and I will be posting a reflection soon.
My Reflection on the Flat Classroom Conference
The First Day
The Flat Classroom Conference was one of the best experiences I have ever
had in my life. The first day was our introduction to the desert. We did not go to Qatar Academy, but we went to the Souk and went dune bashing. Since it was the holy day for the Islamic religion, most of the Souk shops were closed except for the Moroccan tea shop. They had some really good tea and waiters. They poured the tea from about a three foot height. After this we got to the fun part of the day. Dune bashing is an ATV lovers dream. We drifted down really steep slopes and sped across flats at speeds over 120 KPH. Then we ate an exotic dinner and prepared for the conference the next day.
The Beginning of the Conference
The next day was the first day of the conference. The first thing we did was eat lunch at the school. When I got to the school, I thought it was a palace. This school was the size of five Westwoods combined. The lunch was quite different but it was not bad at all. After lunch, we had the opening ceremony in the auditorium then went straight to the Student Summit room and met our team mates. I really enjoyed working with my team mates Nastassja, Antonia, and Yaqsan. Our teams name ended up being Eracism. We put our heads together and came up with a really good idea to stop racism across the world.
Racespace.edu
The idea we put forth was racespace.edu. Racespace.edu is supposed to be a website designed to help teenagers understand other cultures and learn ethnic differences between others around the world. The website is a debate site where teens debate about there differences and will hopefully understand why they stereotype cultures. The teens and adults not involved in the debate will have access to the websites backdoor chat window so they can give their opinion too. We plan to market this website using Myspace and Facebook because almost every teenager has one.
The Final Video
Since our idea made it into the final group we had to make an advertisement video for our presentation. We all gave very good ideas and put our heads together to create a really good video. Our strengths pulled us through to create a good video. Nastassja was the director of the video and pretty much told everyone what to do. She was like our moms in teenage form. I acted in most of the films clips. Unfortunately I was the bully every time. Antonia and Yaqsan were our editors for the films we shot. They were both really good with computer software. They could probably work for Microsoft. Our final video named Eracism is on the conference ning and your votes are greatly appreciated.
By: John Vereen
Monday, January 26, 2009
Too Tired to Talk
We're done!
For a first conference with basically no advertising - it was phenomenal. Figure I'll blog tomorrow from the DC airport. I'm so tired it is a challenge.
To me, this picture taken by Katie's group says a lot about the cultural and international understanding facilitated by what we did here. Julie Lindsay and I are looking towards where it will be next year -- not sure yet and are approaching some people who support the vision. Hope to take some more kids next year.
Just remember, wherever we go, we will have strict guidelines. If a student cannot be trusted to stay on task in the classroom, then, they certainly will not be taken out of the classroom! The application process is something we'll work on.
Also, in the next year and a half we may have to replace the computer lab - this is another thing that concerns me as we look at writing more grants.
But for now, this picture is enough. Tired beyond belief and ready to head home to the greatest husband and kids in the world (and two cats and a dog.) I loved it here but Camilla, that is home and I love it and the people in Camilla dearly. Thank you, Westwood, for being such a great school!
Good night!
For a first conference with basically no advertising - it was phenomenal. Figure I'll blog tomorrow from the DC airport. I'm so tired it is a challenge.
To me, this picture taken by Katie's group says a lot about the cultural and international understanding facilitated by what we did here. Julie Lindsay and I are looking towards where it will be next year -- not sure yet and are approaching some people who support the vision. Hope to take some more kids next year.
Just remember, wherever we go, we will have strict guidelines. If a student cannot be trusted to stay on task in the classroom, then, they certainly will not be taken out of the classroom! The application process is something we'll work on.
Also, in the next year and a half we may have to replace the computer lab - this is another thing that concerns me as we look at writing more grants.
But for now, this picture is enough. Tired beyond belief and ready to head home to the greatest husband and kids in the world (and two cats and a dog.) I loved it here but Camilla, that is home and I love it and the people in Camilla dearly. Thank you, Westwood, for being such a great school!
Good night!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The Conference
Hello everyone. This is Tayler, and I am having a good time here in Doha, but we'll be leaving for the United States tomorrow, and I'm ready to be home. I've had a very good time, I've met some really cool people, but I'm ready to be home.
We have two students in the Finals!
It is late - 2 am here and you're in the late afternoon and probably wondering what is going on. Been a phenomenal day here. All of the students did a GREAT job with their student projects. Out of the nine teams here, we have selected four teams to be in the final video competition. Casey is on one of the teams and John is on the other.
Tayler and Katie did a great job and they'll go into another Web 2.0 tool competition tomorrow.
We ate dinner at the Souq tonight and did some souvenier shopping. Everyone had to get used to bargain hunting. Talk about rugs!! Kip is getting a new beautiful rug that I haggled down to the equivalent of about $40. (OK, so it is really for me!) US Money DOES actually go a long way here.
Dinner was very good and afterwards we had Haagen Daaz ice cream - yes Haagen Daaz!
We have worked from sunup till sundown trying to put so much into the visit, both cultural and learning. The students have shown great leadership and made friends from around the world. The conference has been a great success and we're having a meeting tomorrow to see if there is potential for sponsorship next year. Not sure of the location of this project, but we ate dinner with the CEO of HSBC Bank for the Middle East on Saturday night.
We've all discussed how our stereotypes of the Middle East are totally changed. We think we feel much safer here than in New York. Any city has its unsafe areas and unsavory characters -- Atlanta does too!
It is so important to look at the person. Yes, we have very different cultures, but the people here in Qatar are very nice. You know how sometimes some people come to Camilla from other places and they look down on us and are rude? Well, sometimes those same people come here and give Middle Easterners the wrong impression of US!
Southerners are perfect for doing well here. In fact, Ray Jones, one of our hosts with Qatar Academy is from Texas! That is because Southerners are polite. And saying "please" and "thank you" in Arabic go a long way because so few from America even make an attempt! It is beautiful to see the students as friends and pronouncing each other's names correctly. (This is something that makes anyone from any culture feel special.)
Many people here are expatriates, but even those that are not are also hospitable. We're working with high quality people here and it is a privilege to know and work with them. Their school looks like a palace!
Really, when looking at the Middle East, we have to look at the Country. The Emir here has a goal to make Doha the Business capital of the Middle East just as Dubai has become the entertainment capital. There are so many cranes here it is unbelievable. More than 20 today were counted beside the bus and then we lost count! Building is going on everywhere! Sometimes the leaders see a building on MTV Cribs and decide to build it! You've never seen buildings like these!
The people here are delightful. Today, there was a beautiful Qatari woman who teaches at Qatar Academy. The room was full and she was about to sit on the stairs. A student from another culture saw her and moved over to give her a seat. It was a universal symbol of kindness and understanding of the humanness of us.
It has been a great experience. Mrs. Betty has been incredible to travel with and sometimes makes me feel old - SHE HAS SO MUCH ENERGY! It is a privilege to know that she hired me to come to Westwood and pushed all of us teachers to implement the project based learning approach that is based upon the latest educational research.
Thank you to all of the visionary supporters who encouraged us to go. So many people thought we were crazy, but we've worked with the people here from Qatar Academy for two years! We've met them at conferences and our students have partnered with them! Today, a student from Oman who worked with Joy this year in Flat Classroom showed her picture and talked about what a leader she was on the project! What great students!
Can you believe that students at Westwood work on projects with students from Oman, Qatar, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, China, Japan, Australia, Canada... and more I just don't remember?
If you want to see how amazing this is, below is the video called Shift Happens viewed millions of times on youtube. Look at the end of this video and you'll see reference to our own Flat Classroom project that started here in Camilla, Georgia. This video helps you see sort of what all of this technology stuff is about.
Thank you to the Grandparents, parents, and so many people that help us keep our technology program going at the school. Goodnight from Qatar and I'll see you soon!
If you want to know more about what is happening, feel free to take a look at the Ning. Night y'all.
Tayler and Katie did a great job and they'll go into another Web 2.0 tool competition tomorrow.
We ate dinner at the Souq tonight and did some souvenier shopping. Everyone had to get used to bargain hunting. Talk about rugs!! Kip is getting a new beautiful rug that I haggled down to the equivalent of about $40. (OK, so it is really for me!) US Money DOES actually go a long way here.
Dinner was very good and afterwards we had Haagen Daaz ice cream - yes Haagen Daaz!
We have worked from sunup till sundown trying to put so much into the visit, both cultural and learning. The students have shown great leadership and made friends from around the world. The conference has been a great success and we're having a meeting tomorrow to see if there is potential for sponsorship next year. Not sure of the location of this project, but we ate dinner with the CEO of HSBC Bank for the Middle East on Saturday night.
We've all discussed how our stereotypes of the Middle East are totally changed. We think we feel much safer here than in New York. Any city has its unsafe areas and unsavory characters -- Atlanta does too!
It is so important to look at the person. Yes, we have very different cultures, but the people here in Qatar are very nice. You know how sometimes some people come to Camilla from other places and they look down on us and are rude? Well, sometimes those same people come here and give Middle Easterners the wrong impression of US!
Southerners are perfect for doing well here. In fact, Ray Jones, one of our hosts with Qatar Academy is from Texas! That is because Southerners are polite. And saying "please" and "thank you" in Arabic go a long way because so few from America even make an attempt! It is beautiful to see the students as friends and pronouncing each other's names correctly. (This is something that makes anyone from any culture feel special.)
Many people here are expatriates, but even those that are not are also hospitable. We're working with high quality people here and it is a privilege to know and work with them. Their school looks like a palace!
Really, when looking at the Middle East, we have to look at the Country. The Emir here has a goal to make Doha the Business capital of the Middle East just as Dubai has become the entertainment capital. There are so many cranes here it is unbelievable. More than 20 today were counted beside the bus and then we lost count! Building is going on everywhere! Sometimes the leaders see a building on MTV Cribs and decide to build it! You've never seen buildings like these!
The people here are delightful. Today, there was a beautiful Qatari woman who teaches at Qatar Academy. The room was full and she was about to sit on the stairs. A student from another culture saw her and moved over to give her a seat. It was a universal symbol of kindness and understanding of the humanness of us.
It has been a great experience. Mrs. Betty has been incredible to travel with and sometimes makes me feel old - SHE HAS SO MUCH ENERGY! It is a privilege to know that she hired me to come to Westwood and pushed all of us teachers to implement the project based learning approach that is based upon the latest educational research.
Thank you to all of the visionary supporters who encouraged us to go. So many people thought we were crazy, but we've worked with the people here from Qatar Academy for two years! We've met them at conferences and our students have partnered with them! Today, a student from Oman who worked with Joy this year in Flat Classroom showed her picture and talked about what a leader she was on the project! What great students!
Can you believe that students at Westwood work on projects with students from Oman, Qatar, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, China, Japan, Australia, Canada... and more I just don't remember?
If you want to see how amazing this is, below is the video called Shift Happens viewed millions of times on youtube. Look at the end of this video and you'll see reference to our own Flat Classroom project that started here in Camilla, Georgia. This video helps you see sort of what all of this technology stuff is about.
Thank you to the Grandparents, parents, and so many people that help us keep our technology program going at the school. Goodnight from Qatar and I'll see you soon!
If you want to know more about what is happening, feel free to take a look at the Ning. Night y'all.
Qatar Academy
Looks just like Westwood, no?
Our gracious host, Qatar Academy, is beautiful (and very easy to get lost in!). Check out some of the pictures from campus. Yeah, most of these are just the recreation center.
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